


Artifacts

by maat_seshat



Category: Stealing the Elf-King's Roses - Diane Duane
Genre: Gen
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-12-22
Updated: 2013-12-22
Packaged: 2018-01-05 13:33:17
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,510
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/1094450
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/maat_seshat/pseuds/maat_seshat
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Some of the qualities of matter have changed now, sure, but a lot of investigating remains the same.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Artifacts

**Author's Note:**

  * For [Gray Cardinal (Gray_Cardinal)](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Gray_Cardinal/gifts).



"You know," Lee said as they ducked under police tape and into the building, "I'm a little tired of getting cases because Renselaar thinks we make a good riot shield." The entrance hall of Ellay Art was imposing in the morning light, its green columns towering over her. Of course, that might just be the knowledge of what had gone missing inside.

Gelert snorted. "Might need to move out of Ellay, then. The pull to put a king of Alfheim on our witness list isn't something he's going to ignore."

Lee made a face. She had no time to reply, though, as the detective in charge of the scene rounded the corner and spotted them. "Good, you're here." Esperanza Blake-Celiz shook Lee's hand firmly as she met them and nodded hello to Gelert. 

He grinned back at her. "Sorry to come stomping on your toes like this."

Esperanza shook her head. "I'd rather have you than whatever investigator GloBank would have brought in." She led them briskly up the stairs. "This entire exhibition got extra insurance and security when the press about Alfheim started heating up, since no one wanted some hot-head to decide defacing possibly Alfen relics was a good way to make a statement, but none of us were prepared for what happened in August." She turned an assessing look on Lee and Gelert as they made it up to the landing. Gelert panted dramatically, and Lee smiled. 

"We weren't either, Esperanza," she promised. "Just a little more caught in the middle."

The detective accepted her deflection with good grace and waved them forward. "Well, the exhibition has had heavy traffic since whatever the change. A lot of repeat-viewers, too, wanting to see if anything feels different. It just got approved for a national tour before this happened." She fell silent as they entered the room.

Most of the exhibition was intact, display cases filled with artifacts and informational plaques that detailed their possible connections to Alfheim. Many were legendary; one wall case held the remnants of a cloak that was once claimed as proof of the favor of an immortal—and according to modern claims, Alfen—saint who had known Suzanne Christ's disciples personally, against a backdrop of three photographs of similar cloaks that made the same claim.

The pieces with the strongest documentary claims had their own dedicated display cases. Lee wondered how much of that was to let more museum-goers see them at once and how much was to avoid mixing the effects of multiple Alfen artifacts. One particular knotted rope itched at her eyes, and she tore her gaze away before it could turn judicial, turning toward the one glass case that hung open, conspicuously empty and surrounded by evidence markers. Beside her, Gelert sneezed.

She looked at him. "Is it the fingerprint dust or the history?" she asked.

Gelert wrinkled his muzzle the way he only did when he was resisting pawing at it. "Both. I thought the world-change would stop making Alfen artifacts try so hard to make me smell them, but it also seems to have given some artifacts from the rest of the Worlds a little too much power."

Lee winced. "I hope it doesn't drown the trace."

"One way to find out." Gelert's nails clicked on the floor as he walked over to the smudge physical forensics suggested might be a footprint. Lee closed her eyes and clenched her jaw to activate her implant, the familiar procedure soothing.

The image blurred on the very edge of hazy invisibility. No life had been spilled here, thank Her, and only the deceptively decorative quartz in the edges of the display case retained the psychic impression of the thief. The figure seemed slender, but that might have been less physical than psychic; it was nearly imperceptible against the punch of the stone bird removed from the case. She wanted the figure stagger, clutching the small carving to its chest, where it shone with a significance that was not radiation but felt like light, despite being entirely engulfed in one shadowy fist. It hit like a punch to the shoulder as the figure walked straight through Lee, a wordless singing in her mind that almost drowned out the person's tired triumph, a fierce sense of _this is the power that I need_ that crept into her bones but did it so quietly that Lee nearly mistook the thought for her own. The carved bird's singing fell silent as it passed beyond her, and Lee turned slowly to watch the figure fade from view, until the bird itself seemed to be floating down the stairs, out the door, and finally out of sight. 

Lee closed her eyes and cut off her recording. No need to pull too much energy now from an already weak field. That much remained constant, even when inanimate objects seemed now to assert more personality on Earth than she had ever seen from them outside Alfheim. People, too, seemed more vivid in a strangely undefinable way, which she would hopefully be able to pin down with a bit more practice. For now, Lee shivered slightly, shaking off both the exhaustion and the triumph the way that Gel would shake off water, though like the water it didn't all go. She took the xoco candy that Esperanza handed her gratefully. "One person," she said. "Can't tell you male or female, but about ten centimeters taller than I am. Probably has psycho-forensic training; whoever it was went straight for the item with the strongest resonance and wants to use it for something." She double-checked the informational plaque. "And this isn't the most authenticated artifact here, so they probably didn't pick it by historical research."

Esperanza grimaced. "But no disappearing act, right?"

Lee shook her head. "No. Just a normal fade-out. Maybe a little faster than normal, like someone used to hiding a psychic trace, but we'll see what Gel says about that." She popped the candy in her mouth and imagined she could feel the caffeine—and the sugar. "Thanks for the xoco."

Esperanza waved her off. "Don't want your partner to bark at me about your blood sugar levels." Lee bit her tongue firmly on a reply, but Esperanza laughed anyway. "Do you want to take another run at this, or check up on what he's found so far?"

Lee shook her head. "Don't want to wear out the site yet. Let's see what he's got, but I'd appreciate it if you could keep your people away from the display case unless they need to get close."

Esperanza's look told her that was a stupid request. Her words were mild, if a bit dry. "Already done." Lee grimaced an apology.

They ran into Gelert back down in the entryway. "They left off Wiltshire in a Toyota Highlander with non-standard tires and in need of an oil change. I'm going to do some sniffing to see if I can figure out what year the model is and what company the tires are from; we might be able to catch them in the nearest traffic camera. Someone must have done really good shielding on that car, because the trace cut off as soon as the door closed."

Lee nodded. "The thief practically faded into the air when I looked. I don't think we'd have a trace at all without the quartz enhancers and the significance of the artifact itself."

"The building will stay closed for today, but that's all I can guarantee," Esperanza told them both. "It'll depend on how much more security the multinationals want to add, and how much they want to keep showing off this collection. GloBank's just the primary sponsor."

Gelert's ears twitched in a wince. "Better do my research fast then."

"I'll do another run tonight," Lee agreed. "I want to do some research on the information the museum gave us first."

Esperanza nodded. "The exhibition curator's down at the station, but most of the staff are here. Do you want to talk to anyone?"

Lee swapped a glance with Gelert. "I'll take the curator?" she suggested. "He'll give me a place to start."

Gelert shrugged, a full-shouldered movement that made him look ready to pounce. "I'll see if anyone smells fishy here, but then I should get back to the cars."

"Good enough for me," Esperanza said, "I want to send Johnson back to the station anyway, so I'll get him caught up then send you with him."

"A world made new," Lee sighed as Esperanza strode over to a uniformed officer, "and people are still stealing Alfen artifacts for power." 

Gelert snapped playfully at the air. "Not like we have room to talk, Lee," he said. "Besides, who says it's actually Alfen this time? I saw this exhibit before we left, and I didn't smell anywhere near that level of distortion. A world made new and Earth's treasures seem to be acting like Alfen ones. Something to research."

Lee laughed. "So stop whining and work, hmm?"

Gelert grinned. "Well, we're not out of a job yet."


End file.
